Sunday, August 29, 2010

Greetings from Kathmandu again!I am back in Kathmandu to attempt another 8000m peak this year, Cho Oyu. I have attached some information below regarding the mountain, the route, and some maps. I have also added a weather feature at the blog site. If you would like to view the weather at the summit of Cho Oyu simply go to the main blog site.

I arrived in Kathmandu on August 25th and was greeted by the fact that the village where all the garbage is dumped for Kathmandu has gone on strike, and is refusing to allow garbage trucks to pass through unless the government guarantees the villagers jobs driving the trucks. So trash is heaped up at strategic points in the city and the normal smells of Kathmandu which are unpleasant on normal days are even worse at this point.

I have completed all the shopping for the expedition and we shall be eating like kings on the mountains. The team will arrive on August 30th and we plan to depart for the mountain on Sept 2. From Kathmandu we will drive to the border town of Kodari on the Nepal side and Zhangmu on the Tibetan side. We will spend one night here as we transfer gear across the border and deal with the customs and immigration to get into the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. The following day will take us into the little mountain village of Nylam where we will spend two nights acclimatizing at about 3800m. Then we drive to Tingri which I pleasantly refer to as the anus of Tibet where we will spend one night. From there we drive to Cho Oyu Base Camp and we will spend about 5 days acclimatizing and preparing to transfer our gear up to ABC. On the first trip we will stop at the midway point called Palung. We hope to arrive in ABC by Sept 10 and start climbing the mountain around the Sept 12.

For those of you who were hoping to be following Robbie, Brad, or Eric I am sad to say they are not on this trip. I believe there is a button at the bottom of the emails you receive if you would prefer not to get these email.Thank you for your support.

Cho Oyu was first attempted in 1952 by an expedition organised and financed by the Joint Himalayan Committee of Great Britain as preparation for an attempt on Mount Everest the following year. The expedition was led by Eric Shipton and included Tom Bourdillon, but technical difficulties at an ice cliff above 6,650 m (21,820 ft) proved beyond their abilities.

The mountain was first climbed on October 19, 1954 via the north-west ridge by Herbert Tichy, Joseph Jöchler and Sherpa Pasang Dawa Lama of an Austrian expedition.[1] Cho Oyu was the fifth 8000 metre peak to be climbed, after Annapurna in June 1950, Mount Everest in May 1953, Nanga Parbat in July 1953 andK2 in July 1954.Just a few kilometres west of Cho Oyu is Nangpa La (5,716m/18,753 ft), a glaciated pass that serves as the main trading route between the Tibetans and the Khumbu's Sherpas. Due to its proximity to this pass and the generally moderate slopes of the standard northwest ridge route, some climbers consider Cho Oyu to be the easiest 8,000 metre peak to climb[2], and it is a popular objective for professionally guided parties.